


Under The Killing Moon

by AddictedToTheWrittenWord



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AtLA, Avatar the Last Airbender, F/M, Zutara, Zutara Month, zuko x katara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:23:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AddictedToTheWrittenWord/pseuds/AddictedToTheWrittenWord
Summary: Zuko and Katara are refugees and war orphans who have been trained by the White Lotus since childhood to hone their bending skills to assassinate the Fire Navy’s highest ranking members.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Zutara - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	Under The Killing Moon

If you summed up my life until this point it would be. Travel light. Move quick. Create distance. It’s a way of life when your an assassin. Nothing left behind. Nothing to tie you to the scene of the crime. Leave no trace of your ever having been there. Leave no trace of your existence. Make it quick. Make it clean. Flee the scene.

That’s what they used to sing to us when we were little. They made a game out of the killing. Turned it into a song. A nursery rhyme so that our young minds could grasp the concept of killing. I don’t feel bad for being an assassin. I’m doing what needs to be done to end the war. Some say it’s hopeless to still fight after the Avatar was killed by Fire Lord Ozai’s daughter Azula, but I say fighting is better than giving up. People always think things are impossible until someone does the impossible. When it comes to ending this war I don’t believe in can’t. There’s just can’t right now. We can’t defeat Ozai right now, but we will.

Working at night has always been to my advantage, but my partner Zuko has never let it be to his disadvantage. His firebending is as deadly at night as it is during the daytime, and if ever it wasn't his dao swords more than make up for the discrepancy. The White Lotus masters pick our partners by watching the way all of us played together as children. To us it seemed like a regular playtime innocent enough, but there's nothing innocent about being one of the White Lotus' orphans, and it was really a test; a compatibility test to see what assassin we paired best with. Not only did they see how well we played together but they also watched how we fought with each other. 

Zuko and I have always had our share of fights but we always resolved them. We don't let things fester we knock down, drag out, and make up. I guess that's one of the reasons the masters put us together. I don't know all of the reasons why the two of us were paired and I've never felt the need to ask. Zuko and I just work. We are both opposites and equals an unmovable object and an unstoppable force. 

“We should be reaching Whaletail island in about fifteen minutes.” Zuko calls out.

“Who’s the mark?” I ask.

“Lieutenant Shimizu.”

I don’t need to study the photo of Lieutenant Shimizu I’ve got his face memorized already. I always remember their face even if I don’t remember their names. I don’t like calling the marks by their name. The killing is easier if I only think of them as marks.

“Five more minutes.”

I flex the veins in my fingers and my arms preparing myself to bloodbend as Zuko slips his Blue Spirit mask over his face. Our sky bison, Appa, dips low over the water. The members of the white lotus told us that Appa once belonged to the Avatar and I don’t doubt it because who else beside an airbender would have a sky bison? Some people say the Avatar isn’t dead. I’ve heard rumors that he’s in hiding and just waiting for the right moment to come back and save the world. I can’t waste my time with rumors and what ifs. I want a life beyond killing, running, and hiding. The only way to do that is to end this war, and I will by any means necessary.

The lieutenant’s ship comes upon us quickly. Bile rises up in my throat forcing me to clamp my lips shut tight and fight against the hot sick feeling but I hold back the urge to wretch. I always get an intense sick feeling before a kill. For a moment my skin is clammy but I whisk the sweat away with my bending to prevent chills. I’ve got to be totally focused. Zuko and I have planned this down to every last detail, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the killing. 

“We can't fly in directly to the outpost we'll have to find somewhere to land Appa and then make our way from there.” 

“How many are stationed at the outpost?” 

“Less than ten.” Zuko replies. “It's strictly no take downs unless anyone sees us then we have no choice but to take them out.” 

“I know the drill besides they never see us coming. That's what makes us assassins.” 

I remember my first kill and the shocked look on the mark's face as my ice crystal pierced his heart. It slipped into him so easily, and even though the mark didn't know me he looked so betrayed. His eyes stayed on me until he fell to the floor. There wasn't any blood it all seemed too neat to be a killing. Murder was supposed to be messy and hard but my first time had been neither of those things. 

“Is he really dead, Zuko?” 

“Come on Katara we don’t have time.” 

“But he-.” 

“Come on! Make it quick. Make it quick. Make it clean. Flee the scene.” Zuko reminded me as he pulled me out of the room by the sleeve of my cloak, but I couldn't take my eyes off of the man lying in the floor. He was dead. I really did it. I killed someone. 

We were out of the building before anyone even noticed that the general was dead and I couldn't believe how easy it was. Surely they won’t be all easy I thought. They weren't. There has been more than one mark that's put up a good fight. I've got the scars to prove it but the outcome is always the same. They die and Zuko and I live on to kill again and again; enough to amass a body count. I've seen the look of death on so many people's faces but I never can forget my first. To this day that surprise look of betrayal haunts me. 

“We can land over there.” Zuko points to a small island a few yards away and I guide Appa towards it. We leap off the back of Appa before he touches down to the ground. 

“We're going to have to sail our way over.” 

“I'm on it.” I bend out a piece of ice big enough and thick enough to carry Zuko and I over to the Fire Navy's communication outpost. The floating block of ice cuts through the water like a knife through flesh. When we get close enough to the out post I create a wave big enough to lift us up to the tower. For a moment it's like the two of us are flying, and how I wish that we could. I wish that the two of us could fly away from this all, but as it stands there is no running away there's only fighting and surviving in a world that's ruled by fire.

The outpost is made of metal that is old and rusted from years upon years of being left to bare the brunt of the assault from it's natural enemy the salty sea water, and surely it creeks and groans but as we climb the stairs to the top floor there is no sound. Zuko and I spent years mastering Gōsutomōshon. Ghost motion. The art of moving without being heard. 

The guards are just starting up their rounds, and as we reach the top floor we stay out of their line of sight and they remain oblivious to our presence. We wait until they head in the opposite direction before making our way through the open door that will lead us to Lieutenant Shimizu. There is no one in the corridors no sounds save for the sea. 

In the moments before a kill I become a different person. I wash away all traces of my off duty self and wholly become an assassin. Ice water pumps through my veins and I know longer know mercy or pity. You cannot bargain your way out of the fate at hand; not when my own hands are already stained with too much blood to turn back now. 

“This is it. The lieutenant's room.” Zuko informs me.

“Not for long.”

I force the door open with a surge of water that pushes the solid metal door back on it's hinges. It alerts the lieutenant and before we can even step into his room he's bending at us. It doesn't do him any good. Zuko deflects his fire blast until I step into the room behind him to end things. 

“Wh-who are you?” The lieutenant ask.

“The last thing you'll ever see.” Zuko answers. 

I hate it when they talk. I don't want to know what they sound like I just want them dead. “Shatter!” I cry out and clap my hands together. 

Zuko jumps on the spot. “Damn it, Katara you’re supposed to warn me before you do that!” Zuko snaps as the body lands directly in front of him with a loud thud of dead weight.

“Me saying shatter was your warning. Besides it's the quickest and most humane way I know to kill someone.”

“Humane? Freezing all of someone’s blood vessels and then shattering them into a million pieces is about a brutal death as you can get.”

“I’m sure they feel a lot less pain this way as opposed to boiling their blood.”

Zuko sucks on his teeth. “Whatever. Let’s get out of here.”

We leave the same way we came in. By the time the other soldiers discover their lieutenant's body we'll be long gone. As Appa flies us back to our camp we are silent. I've never asked Zuko what he's thinking about after a kill and he's never asked me. There is no need to; we are both thinking about the same thing. A life where we are not killers. We are thinking about a time when all of this bloody effort will pay off and we'll see the end of the war. It has to end someday. It has to. The hope that the war will one day end is the only thing that gives me the strength to keep killing. Above all else I believe that we will win; I just pray to Yue that we win this war before Zuko and I lose the war between good and evil that is being waged within us. 


End file.
